We Are Human Preview
by ultraaaa
Summary: This is a preview of my upcoming series delving into the human characters' backstories, minds, and decisions made in the film. Their surprising stories feature twists, turns, and many original plot elements, all told in their own words.


This is a preview for a series I'm working on that uses the human characters' video logs to explain more of their backstories, motivations, and lives off camera. It tries to show that all of them, good and bad, have good reasons for acting the way they do in the film. Along the way there are some exciting twists, some sad turns, and lots of surprising revelations. I've tried to select these preview quotes to hint at some of the surprises, but there's much more to come in the full version.

This will be a much more fleshed out version of a previous series I began called "Real, Human, Life." Please let me know what you think! Look for the first chapter of the full version in the coming days.

* * *

I'm glad Mom and Dad aren't here for this. They always knew Tommy was the one with the real chance in life. I was never interested in what it took to succeed on this world, I was always tryin to get out of whatever I had to do, and when I finally realized what it took, I did it in all the wrong ways. But not Tommy. Tommy knew how things worked, he was always on the team, and he was great at it. The guy got his PhD in two years. Two years! This would have killed Mom and Dad, to see this.

You know, Tommy never said so, but, I think the whole reason he wanted to leave, you know, instead of keepin his research going here, was cause after Mom and Dad passed he felt like all his connections to Earth were gone. Even me. Well after tomorrow, he's gonna be right.

See ya, Tommy. Here's wishing that closing a box on a body really can send it somewhere better.

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Just about to go give em the ol security briefing. I love security briefings, heh. I love seeing the smiles on the newbies' faces like they think I'm jokin, or like they think they know what rough is. They don't take it seriously. I remember the ones who smile. Retards. Just gives me more time to figure out how many reinforcements I'm gonna need to make up for their deaths.

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Some more creatures tried to get in here today, by the way. Quaritch keeps telling me he thinks this planet is trying to kill him. He is definitely not the _least_ paranoid man ever, but sometimes I kinda wonder. This time it was a pack of those spitter things. These things are giant, fuckin, carnivorous plants with springy 100 foot prehensile roots they throw out in front of them and use to slingshot themselves forward, and at the end of that whole shit they launch these giant missile looking needles as fast as a frickin bullet. I mean, _what_? And how do four of those things just randomly show up rushing the same part of the base all at the same time? It's weird, whenever Quaritch tells me these things, he's always worried about the goddamn creatures' eating habits. "Oooo, why didn't they eat any of the men they killed? Why weren't they hungry? Why'd they attack if they didn't wanna eat? Oooo!" Like quit worryin about the digestive cycles of fuckin _plants_, man.

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It's pretty damn weird how life works out sometimes. You know who's coming to Pandora? Fuckin Jake ass Sully. Didn't think I'd ever see him again.

Gonna make sure I get assigned to cart his team around. Means I'm gonna have to convince that asshole Parker Selfridge Fancy Ass The Fourth to help me out. I've saved up some dough to grease things up. Fuck. I hate how this operation works.

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So, new Faith pictures just came! Five years ago she was the most beautiful girl in the entire galaxy. Hey, and birthday pictures. Wow, uh, that's... that's a lot of candles! Heh ohhhhh boy. She's really that old, huh? Guess she's not much of a girl anymore.

Don't worry, baby. We're gonna figure everything out up here. I wouldn't have brought a new generation into a world with no future. No. I _didn't _do that to you. You'll have a future and so will your children. I promise. We're working as hard as we can here. I love you.

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Report says we got this new kid here Sully. Busted up cripple, disgusting to look at, but that ain't important. He's an avatar driver _and_ an ex-marine. Yeah! A marine. Holy hell, what luck. I pulled his file, turns out he knows what life really is too. Kid was on duty down in Venezuela, fucking wasteland of trees, one of the few places left back home we ain't taught to sit still yet. Did some reeeaaal mean things down there, heh. Fuckin whole families of rebels! And what'd he get for doin his duty? A bullet right in his lower spine. Yeah, he knows what life is. It's a mean trick and the only way to beat it's to be even meaner.

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I don't even know how to describe it. The sky... it's so blue. We had that sayin, you know? "He's so gullible, you tell him the sky is blue and he'd run outside to see." Well shit! I see it right now. Lookin forward to flying pigs and hell freezin over later tonight. Although, honestly, the shit I've seen so far, flyin pigs wouldn't even make me bat an eye.

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I try to make friends with people at the base. I really do. But it's hard to find friends when nobody else wants to be one and when all the goddamn guys are rippin on me for bein a woman all the time. After work and outside mess, everyone just goes to their room and hangs out with their thoughts. I mean that's what _I'm_ doin right now. Wish to hell I could be doin _someone_ instead.

I saw Victor in mess today. He doesn't even care. He stared right at me just grinnin. Wanted to march right over there and rip the teeth outta that goddamn smile one by one.

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He asked me to explain the science behind the avatar program, which surprised me. Frankly, I almost expected him to ask what kind of magic we were using, but he clearly understood the separation between scientific fact and make believe nonsense like magic.

In my opinion this makes the Na'vi's insistence that Eywa is real all the more interesting. They do not look to magic or superstition in the rest of their lives. They observe how the world works around them, and while they have fanciful explanations for phenomena they don't yet have the tools to explain, I've seen them employ something approximating the scientific method to much of the world around them. As a result, they have some fairly detailed and surprisingly accurate theories about a host of things, not least evolution. In our species, when we reached a point where we could confidently explain phenomena without appeals to magic and fancy, belief in a god began to die out. So why do the Na'vi continue to claim so insistently that a goddess controls their world? Their insistence makes me want to look into the whole issue of Eywa more closely.

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It's gettin harder to keep Venezuela out. This whole back and forth between brains thing, the only way I know which one I'm in half the time is by trying to wiggle a toe. Each time I come back to humanity, I have to put up my old barriers a little more consciously than I used to. I'd just grown used to never thinkin about it, you know? And then here it is again. I know I need to get regular sleep in my regular body, but God is it hard. I'm afraid of closing my eyes every time. I know what I'm gonna see. I know what I'm gonna hear. And you know what? I don't need that shit.

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Remember Dad's gift? Just looking at that box, I was so excited. It was taller than I was! I tried opening it but the paper was too thick and I couldn't find any loose parts to tear. I walked around it, trying to find something to open, but there was nothing. And the whole time Dad kept on goading me on. "It's a great present! Open it up, come on! Open it up! I know you want it!" Why won't he just give me my fucking present? I hated him so much. I started hitting it but that didn't help. I asked Nanny Jen to help me open it. She looked at my dad and said no. That wasn't like her. I asked the cook, he said no too. I asked the butler, the driver, the maid, I asked all the lowers. I even asked Dad. He said no too. I started crying. "Come on, Parker, open it up! Open it up!" Finally I took out some of the money in my wallet and said to the help, "How much is he paying you? I'll pay you more to help me open this." It was like saying "Open Sesame!" They all tore it right down.

I get it, Dad. Real power is in convincing the lowers to do what you want. I didn't give any of them a single dime for helping me. Why should I? Goddamn lowers. They already did what I wanted.

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I spent all day with Norm today. We went flying around looking for new plants. I'm never really sure what they're lookin for, ya know? He talks a lot about the plants and the animals around here cause I act like I'm interested. And ya know, I am interested. Just maybe not so much in the plants.

Grace was there too but I didn't really talk with her. She seemed like, really deep in her own little world. You know she's got a daughter? Yeah, a real live daughter back home. I dunno why she left her. Poor girl, she'll never know her own mother. Now that's a shitty life, nobody knows that better than me. Whatever brought Grace out here, I get the feelin that it ain't just cause she likes plants.

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When it was over, they all just left. Weren't the thanators hungry? Why didnt... hic! They didn't even take hic! I don't get it. They didn't take even a slice of meat from a single soldier. And they walked back fuckin hand in hand with the hammerheads like mortal enemies strollin in church. They werent Hic! They weren't hungry? _Why weren't they hungry! God damn it! Why are they killin us when they don't wanna eat!_

_----------_

I'll have more about this in a bit, I just couldn't wait to get my initial findings recorded. Incredibly, the Na'vi use this plant to heal people with neural disorders. Essentially, the medicine woman... heh. More like the surgeon, I guess. The surgeon and the patient both make tsahaylu with it, and then the doctor guides one of the plant's tendrils up the patient's braid and into the brain, where the surgeon uses it to recognize and heal the patient's neural issues. Incredible. It's absolutely incredible. I am so thankful for Jake. If he hadn't talked Eytukan into letting me back in, we never would have found this.

I have strong hopes for this one, Faith.

_----------_

I didn't wanna be here. I want hic! Fuck. I wanna be back home with Jenna and Stevey. I miss you, my little man. I love you, Jenna. I'll see you soon. I can feel it. I ain't doin this for the money. God knows. What else do I got? Other than to make sure the race lives on. Sometimes I just feel like all I gotta do is wake up. Like all this, it's all a dream. I wanna spend the rest of my life in cryo sleep. Goddamn it. Hic! Why can't I. Hic! Why can't I age more in cryo? Get old and just fuckin die in cryo. Every time I dream... You know. I don't wanna dream anymore.

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Tomorrow afternoon is my ceremony. I got everything prepared. I know all the prayers, I know all the rituals. I saw them do it last week for one of the boys. Er, one of the men, now. With Neytiri's training, I can probably do the whole thing blindfolded.

I'm so glad Neytiri is gonna be there with me. You know, it was so lucky that Mo'at appointed her to teach me. I... I really like her. This time we've spent together, the last few months, it's been the best time of my whole life. I don't care if it's a dream. I don't care if I'm dreamin her up entirely. She doesn't have to be real to be my dream.

_----------_

Don't know how the hell he can think those savages are capable of love in the first place. We told them we'll die without the mineral. We told him that unless they let us take more, we'll die, the human race will die, and they will have sentenced our whole world to death. When they shut down the school after that fuckin blue monkey tried to shoot us that limp dick piece of shit Augustine went to them fuckin crying and she told them why we're here. Without Pandora, Earth is dead. Did that move them? Did they try to help us? No! They shut down Augustine's school and demanded that we leave. You think a race that would condemn 20 billion people to die can even love in the first place? They'd murder 20 billion before losin a single goddamn tree. _Butchers!_

I remember that day perfectly. I remember the goddamn _names_ of the goddamn _bugs_ on the wall when I first heard that news. Why? Cause the very next day, I swear, the very next day! That's when the attacks first started.

_----------_

Ugh. Can you imagine mixing with those savages, those fucking treehouse-living monkeys? My skin crawls just thinking about touching them. Not that I'd expect some dumbass lower to have any problems with it. Hell. He was basically at their level already anyway. Well that retard Quaritch flew right up there and unplugged him, and now he's rotting in jail. Gonna ship his ass back to Earth for trial on the very next boat. Heh, "trial." The Honorable Uncle Fenton Who Got Forty Thousand Shares of RDA When He Married Dad's Sister, presiding. Like nobody knows how that shit's gonna turn out.

_----------_

A human avatar cannot have a relationship with a Na'vi woman. It's never worked, there's simply too much separating us. Does Jake think he's Na'vi? He's Oh my God, they're making us leave. What? What's happening. Eytukan's decision is Norm! final. BZZZZZ Norm! ZZZZZZZZZT I think this machine is finally on the fritz. Get over I I I I BZZZZZZT IIIIIIIIIIII I wept when he... No, Norm, I can't even turn it off. when he told us. It's... all this work, so much progress. What? No. Oh please, not this one. It's That fucking broken! bastard! I don't wanna hear this shit. Not today, please, not today! _That fucking bastard Quaritch and his bullshit trigger happy idiots! _I don't wanna hear this shit! _Those machine gunners cost us everything! _

_----------_

Fuckin Wainfleet was all, "Chill out, it's just his fuckin fake avatar body," but he doesn't know. That's Jake! That's Jake. If that body dies, Jake is dead. His whole _life_ is in that body. He don't give two shits about back home. He never even calls it home! Only word he's got for it is Earth. What's he got there? Here he's got everything and he'd do anythin to keep it. Please live, Jake. Please. You got everythin I want. Please God. Don't take it away from him. At least somebody should have it. A lover, a family, somethin to _belong_ to. Don't take it away from him! Oh shit, oh shit.

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This abundance of life must be a major reason why the Na'vi, who after all are of similar intelligence to humans, have never bothered to create advanced artificial technologies. Why manufacture things that already exist in nature? We depend on a million technologies to keep us alive not just in this place, but even on our own planet. They depend almost entirely on nature, on using things that Eywa provides. Ri'tima is an intelligent person whose insatiable appetite for learning has resulted in him picking up some rather advanced scientific concepts during our short time together. And yet when it comes to our machines, he is almost entirely uninterested, choosing instead to use the same technology employed by generations of his ancestors.

I've come to believe that nature is _our_ salvation as well. If we want to save ourselves, our family, and our friends, we need to stop the RDA from killing it. We must stop them. We _must_.

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How can a species slit its wrists on purpose and then, without treating its wounds, suck the blood from another to replace its own draining supplies? We need a tourniquette, we need stitches, we need fucking counseling! We don't just need more blood!

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Eywa knew what she was doing. I've asked the Tree of Souls now, I know what happened. Yes, she had to help herself, yes, she had to kill the company. But she also had to help us. That's why she chose me. That's why she chose Neytiri to find me. It wasn't luck, like I used to think. She knew what she doing. And here I am, helping both sides. Life is life. It should stick together.

Thanks, Norm. Heh I know, right? Haven't done this in a while. Yeah, yeah, I'm ready, you can send it now. The people on Earth have to know _all_ of this.


End file.
